Yesterday was a much-needed mellow day: I didn’t get into prepping extra condiments as I meant to; I was too exhausted by my busy Saturday to do much of anything productive.

At breakfast, I had to substitute some dried cranberries for the pomegranate seeds atop my hot cereal. Though they were also a pretty red and tart to taste, I missed the bright pop of texture that comes from the pomegranate seeds.

If you're eating your way through the program, you may have noticed, as you pick hemp seeds out of your teeth, that texture’s important to me, both aesthetically and in terms of healthy eating choices. You’ve probably heard the principle of “eating the rainbow.” The idea is if you eat foods that have a broad variety of natural colors—from cherry red to emerald spinach to indigo berries—you’ll naturally consume a healthy variety of plant-based nutrients. Likewise, I try to incorporate a full spectrum of textures into the Food Lover's Cleanse menu; not only does it keep eating interesting, but I think of different textures as delivering different healthful properties. The crackle of the seed mixture in Day 4's oatmeal goes with the fiber and healthy fatty acids you find in nuts and seeds; the silkiness of broiled salmon or mackerel again serves as indicator of heart healthy oils at work. All those lunch salads, of course, are full of fiber to help keep you feeling full and do some digestive sweeping. Of course, it all comes back to pleasure, too: That watery crispness in the fennel salad worked as a really nice complement to the toothsome steak slices. At dinner, the caraway seeds played off the smoothness of the roasted beets with a nice nubbliness. Dynamic textures help break up the monotony of things we might otherwise only eat dutifully like, say, green salad or steamed vegetables.

On that subject of fiber, I’m sure it’s a good time to remind you to keep drinking a lot of water. Marissa Lippert, my nutritionist Cleanse collaborator, says it’s great to start each day with a glass of hot lemon water to get the digestive system working before you start eating. It’s a nice little wake-up gesture that I manage to remember only about two days out of evert three. But I am drinking my eight glasses a day: Water helps your body manage all that fiber. And it gives you something to do when you’re antsy, other than rummaging through the cheese drawer (again).

Before I went to bed, I mixed up some orange-date muesli for today’s breakfast. It mellows and swells in the fridge overnight and makes a soothing pudding-like morning treat. Naturally, I wanted to layer it with texture, so I’m topping it with crunchy toasted coconut and snappy bits of cacao nibs.

[#### See the menu for Day 6 of the Food Lover's Cleanse

](http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/healthy/slideshow/menu-food-lovers-cleanse-day-3 "Menu for Jan. 4, Day 3 of the Food Lover’s Cleanse 2014")[#### See the full 2014 Food Lover's Cleanse Plan